Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-07-15

the soul with dry sand; the religion Of
Renan is the romance Of believing nothing;
the religion of Thomas Carlyle is only q
condensed London fog; the religion of the
Huxleys and the Spencers is merely a
pedestal on which human philosophy sits
shlverlng in the night of the soul, looking
up to the stars, Offering no help to the ma.
tons that crouch and groan at the base.
Iell me where there is one man who has
rejected that Gospel for another, who is
thoroughly satisfied and helped and con-
tented IN his skepticism, and will take
the Car tomorrow and ride 500 miles to
see MN. The full power of the Gospel
has not yet been touched. AS sportsman
throws up his hand and catches the ball
Tying through the air, just so easily will
this gospel after while catch this round
world flying from its orbit and bring it
back to the heart of Christ. Give it full
swing, and it will pardon every sin, heal
pate every slave, and ransom every ma
tlon. le Christian men and women who
go out this afternoon to do Christian work,
as You go into the Sunday schools and
the lay preaching stations aud the peni-
tentlaries and the asylums, want you to
feel that you bear in your hand weapon,
compared with which the lightning has
no speed, and avalanches no heft, and the
tnunderbolts of heaven have no power; it
IS the arrow of the omnipotent gospel.
Lake careful aim. Pull the arrow clear
pack until the head strikes the bow. Then
let 1t fly. And may the slain of the Lord
be many.
Again: if you want to be slillful in
spiritual hunting you must hunt in I'M
trequented and secluded places. Why
does the hunter go three or four days in
the Pennsylvania forests or over Raquetta
Lake into the wilds Of the Adirondacks?
1t is the only way to do. The deer are shy,
and one bang" Of the gun clears the forest
From the California stage you see, as You
go over the plains, here and there, coyote
trottln9 along, almost within range of the
sun-sometimes quite within range of it.
NO one cares for that; it is worthless. The
good game is hidden and secluded. Every
hunter knows that. So, many of the souls
that will be of most worth for Christ, and
of most value to the church, are secluded.
lhey do not come in your way. You will
have to go where they are. YonCler they
are down in that cellar, yonder they arc up
Ill that garnet. Far away from the door of
any church, tie gospel arrow has not been
pointed ut them. The tract distributor
and the city missionary sometimes Just
catch a glimpse of them rs hunter
through the trees gets mome1atary sight Of
a partridge or roebuck. The trouble is,
We are waiting for the game to come to us.
We are not good hunters. We are stand
ing IN Sohermerhorn street, expecting that
the timid antelope will come up and eat
out Of our hand. We are expecting that
the prairie fowl will light on our church
steeple. 1t is not their habit. II the
church should wait 10,00a, 0C0 of years for
the world to come in ane! be saved, it will
wait III vain. The world will not come.
What the church wants now is to lift their
feet from damask o:tomans, and put them
i'll the stirrups. We want pulpit on
wheels. The church wants not SO much
cushions as it wants saddle bags and
arrows. We have got to put aside the
gown and the kid gloves, and put on the
hunting shirt. We have been fishing so
long i'll the brooks that run under the
shadow of the church that the fish know
us, and they avoid the hook and escape as
soon as we come to the bank, while yonder
is Upper Saranac and Big Tuppers Lake,
where the first swing of the gospel net
would break it for the multitude of the
fishes. There is outside work to be done.
! What is that | see in the backwoods. 1t is
a tent. The hunters have made clearing
and camped out. What do they care if
they. have wet feet, or if they have moth
ing but pine branch for pillow or for
the northeast storm? If moose in the
darkness steps into the lake to drink, they
hear it right away. If q loon cry in the
of God we have exposed work. We have
got to camp out and rough it. We are
putting all our care on the 10000 people
| of Brooklyn, who, they say, come to church.
! What are We doing for the 100, 900 that do
! not come? Have they no souls? Are they
sinless that they need no pardon? Are
there no dead in their houses that they
need no comfort? Are they cut OF from
God, 10 go into eternity--no wing to bear
| them, no light to cheer them, no welcome
to greet them? I hear to-day surging up
from the lower depths Of Brooklyn eroan
hat comes through our Christian assem-
blages and through our Christian chul ches;
and it blots out all this scene from my
eyes to-day, rs by the mists of great
Niagara, for the dash and the plumage of
these great torrents OF life dropped down
into the fathomless and laundering abyss
OF suffering and woe. [ sometimes think
that. just as God bloted out the Church
of Thyatira and Corintb and Laodicea, be-
cause of their sloth and stolidity, he will
blot out American and English Christianity,
and raise on the ruins stalwart, wide
awake missionary church, that can take
the Iull meaning OF that command: go
into all the world and preach the Gospel to
every creature. He that believc,h and is
baptized shall be saved, and he that be-
lieveth not shall be damned"
l remark, further, if you want to succeed
in Gospel hunting, you must have courage.
Ii the hunter stand with trembling hand or
shoulder that tiinches with fear instead of
his taking the catamount, the catamount
takes him. What would become of the
GreenlaniIer if, when out hunting for bear,
he should stand shivering with terror Oh an
iceberg? What would have become of Du
Chaillu and Livingstone in the African
thicket, with a faint heart and weak
knee? When n panther comes within
twenty PAGES of you, and it has its eyes on
you. and it has suuatted for the fearful
spring, Steady there"
Courage, o We spiritual hunters! There
are great monsters of iniqni,y proving
abound about the community. Shall we
not in the strength of God 90 forth and
combat Them? We not only need more
heart, but more backbone. What is the
Church of God that it should fear to look
i'll the eye any transgression? There is the
Bengal tiger of drunkenness that prowls
around, and instead of attacking it, how
many of us hide under the church pew or
the communion table? There is so much
invested in if we ora afraid to osco,,It If.